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 Between
the 21st and 26th of
May 2002, the University
of Victoria, B.C., Canada,
witnessed a most significant
event of the millennium
decade, the International
Children's Conference
on the Environment 2002,
held in Victoria. Eleven
year old Vivek Danewale
came half way around
the world from Belgaum,
India with his campaign
to save the Otomops bats.
These bats, the Otomops
wroughtoni, are known
from a single cave, Barapedi,
at Telewadi near his
home town in the Western
Ghats of India. These
bats are listed in the
ICUN red list and there
are fewer than 200 in
existence.
Vivek became became interested
in these bats because they are
so rare and so little is known
about them; their habits, habitat
and life cycle. Vivek is the process
of wanting to change that. He spends
his free time reading and researching
bats, and trekking in the adjacent
jungles to identify and document
other bat habitats. He also helps
the local environmental protection
group, Paryaverani, of which his
mother Nyla, is the secretary,
with routine office jobs.
Unfortunately, the habitat of these
bats is threatened by possible
renewal of mining leases, deforestation,
and conversion of private forest
for non forestry practices that
would destroy the breeding grounds
of the insects the bats feed on.
Above all, the death knell is sounded
by the controversial Mahadai dams
and diversion schemes proposed
near the Otomops habitat. The Mahadai
River has its source only three
km from the Barapedi cave.
Vivek was one of 385 children from
eighty different countries from
around the world. This group of
children, ages 10 to 12, came together
for four days, to share their respective
projects with one another. These
young people also developed recommendations
to be forwarded to the world leaders
at the RIO +10 Global Summit on
Sustainability in Johannesburg,
South Africa in August of this
year.
After attending the conference,
Vivek and his mother Nyla did a
whirlwind tour of presentations
to local conservation groups, public
school classes and the Environmental
Studies Department at the University
of Victoria. Also, while visiting
the Cowichan Valley, Nyla, a zoologist
and regional coordinator for an
environmental group called Paravarani,
shared her work on the Sesa Project,
an initiative designed to protect
a 1600 km stretch of the Western
Ghats of India (with legal protection
under the Environmental Protection
Act of India 1986) with the board
of the Cowichan Community Land
Trust Society (www.island.net/~cclt)
in Duncan, B.C. A partnership between
local community development endeavors
of this area of India with similar
endeavors in Duncan is being explored. Partners readers,
revisit our website for further
info on this exciting project to
be posted in the near future.
In order to make this visit possible
for Vivek and his mother to the
Children's Conference the entire
community of Belgaum came to their
assistance. Vivek consulted with
and received help from his town
and local and regional governments,
his local school principal, the
Indian Aluminum Company of Belgaum,
members of the local community
and the press.
For further information about the
Vivek's work, you can contact him
at .
Read more about RIO +10 and International
Children's Conference on the Environment
2002 at www.iccCanada2002.org.
Further information about the Baha'i
perspective on the 'Rio Plus 10'
conference can be viewed at www.onecountry.org/e131/e13104as_WSSD_prepcom.htm.
Vivek and Nyla at the University
of Victoria
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